Lalor pensioners, families and young people paying for Abbott's lies

This week marks one year of Tony Abbott’s lies, deceit and broken promises. A year on and pensioners, families and young people across Lalor are paying for Abbott’s lies.

One year on, whether you are on the Age Pension, the Disability Support Pension, the Carer Payment or Newstart Allowance, Tony Abbott has you in his sights.

The pension is under attack. Family payments are being slashed. And young people will be left without income support for six months.

Federal Member for Lalor, Joanne Ryan said “these attacks are bad news for large number of Lalor residents. The Abbott Government is already making life particularly difficult for Lalor residents by introducing a GP Tax, Petrol Tax and freezing superannuation. Attacks on income support measures will make things even tougher for local families”.

Locally there is:

11,263 people on an Age Pension

5,210 people on a Disability Support Pension

2,153 people on a Carer Payment, and

6,802 Newstart Allowance recipients

One year on, low and middle income Australians are under attack. This is not the Government they said they would be.

On the eve of the election last year, the Prime Minister twice promised no changes to pensions:

“We’re not going to reduce pensions…”

TONY ABBOTT – NEIL MITCHELL, 3AW – 6 SEPTEMBER 2013

“No change to pensions, no change to the GST.”

TONY ABBOTT – CHANNEL 7 SUNRISE – 6 SEPTEMBER 2013

We now know that he lied.

He also promised that he would:

“Reduce cost of living pressures.”

REAL SOLUTIONS, P. 34

And yet families face cuts of $7.5 billion slashed from their family budgets.

Tony Abbott’s unfair Budget will leave a single income family on $65,000 as much as $6,000 a year worse off.

In just one year, Tony Abbott has introduced legislation to:

Cut the Age Pension, the Carer Payment and the Disability Support Pension by $23 billion, leaving pensioners $80 a week worse off within ten years;

Raise the retirement age to 70;

Abolish the Seniors Supplement

Cut families off Family Tax Benefit Part B when their youngest child turns 6;

Cut Newstart for young people under 30;

Slash Family Tax Benefit End of Year Supplements;

And he has already abolished the Schoolkids Bonus and the Income Support Bonus.

The reality is that this is has been a horror year for low and middle income Australians.

Australians know they were deceived.

Labor will stand with pensioners, families, young jobseekers and every hardworking Australian and fight Tony Abbott’s savage attack on their standard of living.